Gravitational Waves: The Discovery that Won the Nobel Prize - Livestream

On September 14, 2015, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) received the first confirmed gravitational wave signals. Now known as GW150914, the event represents the coalescence of two distant black holes that were previously in mutual orbit. LIGO's exciting discovery provides direct evidence of what is arguably the last major unconfirmed prediction of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity and has launched the new field of gravitational-wave astronomy. This talk will present an introduction to LIGO, gravitational waves and black holes. It will also discuss the gravitational wave detection results reported to date from LIGO and Virgo.

Speaker: Lynn Cominsky, Sonoma State University

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